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Mars rover Curiosity, JPL win praise from Jerry Brown

August 23, 2012 | 8:48
pm

Calling the work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “important for California,” Gov. Jerry Brown
on Wednesday defended government investment in science and in projects
such as high-speed rail even at a time of deficits and cuts to core
services.

“If the idea is when you got a problem you don’t do
anything, then you shut this place down, that’s stupid,” he said during
his visit to the campus in La Cañada Flintridge. “You’ve got to do more
than one thing. We have to invest as well, as we take care of all these
other problems.

“JPL and this mission just demonstrate anew what the full potential of California is.”

His visit came on the heels
of JPL successfully landing its rover Curiosity on Mars –- a hugely
complicated mission that has captured public interest in NASA and planetary exploration.

Flanked
by Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau, JPL Director Charles Elachi and
other science leaders, Brown met some of the scientists and engineers
who successfully landed Curiosity and addressed a group of more than 400
of their peers.

“I’m very grateful, every one of you, for what
you’re doing,” he said. “It’s important for California. It’s important
for our country. It’s important for the world. It’s important for the
future.”

“You are really in the forefront,” he added.

Brown
acknowledged that he didn’t take any science courses in college but
reminisced about his involvement with the space industry over the years
and the reputation he earned for proposing far-out ideas during his
first term as governor, from 1974 and 1982.

The agenda eventually led to his nickname, Gov. Moonbeam.

“I
talked a little bit too much about space, and then they came to think I
might be a little spacey,” he said. “There’s a lot of other ingredients
in my moonbeamship.”

Photo: At JPL on Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown, from left, Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau and
Director of the Mars Exploration Directorate Fuk Li look at
recorded footage of the Mars rover Curiosity landing. Credit: Cheryl Guerrero / Times Community News